It hurts
by Ahai
Summary: Michelle walks to the sea alone and end up getting hurt. She doesnt want to tell her papa even though it really hurts. Michelle- Seychelles, Francis -France, Matthew -Canada


At the sea a cute giggling was heard and a cute little figure could be seen. Michelle was such a naughty little girl. Even though her papa strictly told her not to go to the sea on her own, she did it anyway. Today was such a sunny nice day and she just couldn't help it, she really wanted to go by the sea. And why did she need an adult to go with her? She was such a big girl; she could even tie her own shoelaces and eat her vegetables. And besides, when she was alone she could do and decide everything. No one to tell her where to not be, no one to tell it was about time to go home, no one to bother her when she wanted to do something and so on. Her papa was also busy today, so why bother him when she could do this on her own?

Michelle was no stranger to this place, because she often went there. Children normally enjoyed being at a playground, to Michelle the sea was better than a playground. She enjoyed the smell and the sounds from the water and the rocks around she could climb on. It didn't take long for her to already start climbing and jumping from rock to rock. Today Michelle wore her solid long boots so it wouldn't hurt her feet; she knew how sharp those rocks could be. The lines of rock were leading closer and closer to the water. At first Michelle hesitated, her papa told her so many times how dangerous it was to be near the water. But she had so much fun and didn't want it to end just because of water. Since the weather today was sunny then the rocks were probably not slippery and she was a good swimmer and could always climb up again, some of the rocks had plenty of edges to grab to.

She continued her jumping but was interrupted by a sudden strong wind blowing at her. The wind was strong but she didn't fall and was still standing. One of her ribbons however didn't, it blew away and went to the water.

"Oh, no" Michelle said.

Luckily the ribbon didn't go far and was floating closely to a rock. Michelle had to retrieve it and climbed down the rock, with her boots of in case she could just wade in the water for it. Till she couldn't climb down anymore because there was no rock edges left for her feet, she stretched for it as far as she could. As her finger touched the water it made a little wave and the ribbon floated away further from her. She wasn't sure she could stretch any longer but she gave it a try. But when she did the rock she was holding to loosened and she fell into the water. Luckily the water was deep enough to cushion her fall and she hit no rocks. Suddenly she felt something burn her leg.

"Ow!" Michelle yelped.

She quickly withdrew from whatever that was burning her leg and climbed up from the sea. She held to the hurting leg and looked down at the sea where she fell. A jellyfish was floating. And as it was swimming away, a gap of its tentacles were missing. Michelle looked down at her leg. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight. Her leg was now bright red with blisters and with some of the jellyfish tentacles surrounding her ankle. She got up with her good leg and tried to shake it off while supporting herself to the rock. Tears were building up in her eyes, it hurt so much! She managed to get it off but now she had new burns. They were strings on different places on the leg. It sort of looked like whip marks.

She had no idea what to do. She has never been burned by a jellyfish before and the way of treating it was perhaps different then how to treat a regular burn people got from the stove. Although she was in pain, Michelle put her boots back on even though the footwear rubbed against the wound as she walked. She felt panicky. What was she going to tell her papa? Did she at all want to? The pain started to become unbearable but she really didn't want to get yelled at. Her plan was to go home with this limping foot and see if the pain would fade on its own.

"

"Michelle! Where have you been _chérie?" _Francis exclaimed.

Michelle walked inside the house without limping so she wouldn't reveal the pain. Her papa, Francis, went frantic and got worried as he saw her.

"What happened to you? Where is your ribbon?" He asked as he went down to her level to examine her.

Michelle was still wet, but not as much, so it could easily be mistaken as sweat. But she didn't get the ribbon from the sea since she had her full attention on the burn. Now she had one pigtail with loose hair on the other side.

"I am fine papa, I just ran fast and the ribbon fell off" She said with a sad face.

"Oh, don't be sad. Papa will get you new ribbons" Francis said and picked her up.

Michelle wasn't really upset by losing one of the ribbons, the burn on her foot got worse. But being held by papa did help as she squeezed her hands to his shirt and leant her head to his shoulder.

"Papa will make a braid and you can have your hair like that meanwhile" Francis said and put her down.

He loosened the other pigtail and went behind her. He gathered all the hair back, brushed it with his fingers and started to plait. Since Michelle had such long hair, she was used to getting it stuck and pulled and was not hair touchy. The way he tightly plaited and sometimes stroked her hair felt like pampering and eased the burning pain a bit. But the plaiting didn't last forever and she felt it sting worse as her papa let go of her hair. But her mind went occupied as Francis lifted her up to the mirror so she could see the braid he plaited on her.

"Look, _mon ange_" He handed her a hand mirror.

Francis turned his back to the mirror and made Michelle lift the hand mirror in her hands up to the side of her face. Michelle gasped in a happy way at what she saw in the hand mirror. A French braid, the most beautiful French braid she has ever seen!

"It's gorgeous papa, _merci!"_ She exclaimed happily.

Francis gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Do you feel better, _chérie_?"

"_Oui_, papa"

She knew he was talking about the lost ribbon, but she just pretended it was her burn he was talking about. It did feel a bit better during this time of distraction.

"

"What happened to you Michelle!?" Michelle's older brother, Matthew, exclaimed.

Hours after her visiting the sea, Michelle sat on the floor in her room to examine her foot. Both her legs were fully visible now that her boots were of and the way she was sitting revealed her legs even more.

"What do you want?" Michelle asked and tried to cover her burn even though she knew it was too late.

"I was going to ask if you have seen Kumajishu" He said.

Michelle rolled her eyes. How come he didn't know the name of his own polar bear? For this long time of Matthew owning his bear, Michelle has only heard him say the bears name right a few times, Kumajiro.

"No, I haven't seen KUMAJIRO" Michelle said.

"Ok…"Matthew blushed, probably out of embarrassment for mistaking the name again.

Michelle gritted her teeth and hissed as she held her hands tightly on the burned foot she still tried to hide.

"Come on, let me see. I have already seen it before, so just show it"

"Close the door" Michelle said.

Matthew looked a bit confused but he did what she told him. When the door got closed and Matthew sat on the floor in front of her, Michelle let go of her foot and stretched it out so it would be visible for Matthew and her to see. Matthew bent down for a closer look.

"How did this happen?" Matthew asked.

"I went to the sea and I fell into the water. A jellyfish burned me"

Matthew got up.

"We have to tell papa" He said.

As he turned around and was about to go towards the door, Michelle grabbed his hand.

"No! _S'il vous plait_, don't tell papa!" She begged him.

Matthew sat down in front of her again.

"Why?"

"I don't want him to find out I went to the sea on my own"

"You went to the sea on your own?" His eyes widened a bit.

"Yes, but don't take this up now. Just don't tell papa, big brother"

Matthew was quiet a little while, thinking. He looked at Michelle, with some sort of look as if he was defeated. She knew he liked to be acknowledged as her older brother.

"Alright. But we have to do something" He said.

Michelle agreed on that. The pain in her leg hasn't eased at all; it even started to pulsate now. But she had no idea how to treat a jellyfish burn, and she was sure Matthew didn't know how to treat it either. She sorely wished it was possible to rip of the burn and get rid of the pain like how you got out a splinter. If she was desperate enough, she would maybe cut of her foot. But that would hurt even more

"Let's pour some cold water on" Matthew suggested.

Both locked themselves up in the bathroom. Matthew poured cold water in the bathtub and Michelle dipped her foot in it. She sighed, the cold water felt good at her burning warm foot.

"Do you feel better?" Matthew asked.

Michelle nodded. She almost wanted to have her foot in the water forever since she finally felt the pain relieve after this long time. Five minutes later Michelle put her foot out and dried it with a towel.

"How is it?" Matthew asked.

Michelle sat on the floor and put socks on.

"I feel a bit better; maybe it will be gone in a few hours"

Michelle got up from the floor and they both left the bathroom. Now the burn was under control.

"

At 6 am a loud scream was heard. Michelle was tossing around furiously in her bed while screaming and whimpering. She was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Francis and Matthew rushed into her room.

"Michelle, what is the matter?" Francis asked worriedly.

Francis tossed the blanket of her body. Michelle was holding her foot, which still had a sock on, like the other foot. Francis took of both socks and gasped. The burn was now worse! The foot was now swollen, the foot was even redder and there were small blisters on.

"What happened!?" Francis asked.

Michelle was unable to say anything; she kept on whimpering in pain. Matthew had tears running down his eyes.

"It's all my fault, I am the world's worst big brother!" He exclaimed.

As Francis asked him what he was talking about, Michelle blacked out.

"

Michelle woke up by a light bothering her eyes. Her foot felt warm and wet, but it was no longer in much pain. She looked around; she was still in her room but had her leg bed down with her burned foot in a bucket on the floor filled with warm water. Francis entered the room with a cup in his hand.

"Here you go; I've got you some tea with a half paracetamol in it"

Michelle took the cup and started to drink. She was surprised by the fact her papa had tea; he hated things that was typical England. But there aren't many other drinks that could melt a tablet. She felt she needed it, she felt a bit nauseous.

"How is it with you now, _mon petit?_" He asked as he stroked her now messed up braid.

"Better" She didn't say anything more.

Francis took her foot out of the bucked, wrapped it in a cloth and positioned it next to the other foot.

"Matthew told me what happened. Why didn't you tell me?"

Michelle felt guilty. She lied to her papa and asked her brother not to say anything. All this even made Matthew cry out of guilt when all was her own fault.

"I didn't want you to yell at me"

Francis placed his hand on her cheek.

"Michelle, papa won't yell at you when you are hurt, you must always tell papa when you are hurting somewhere. You have now learned not to go anywhere dangerous, haven't you?"

Michelle nodded. It scared her more by the fact she didn't even tell him where she was. What if she couldn't walk and papa searched everywhere and never found her? Next time she went to the sea, she would bring her papa with her. It would maybe be less exiting, but it was a lot safer.

"I got something for you" Francis said and dug in his pocket.

In his hand he held out two new blue ribbons. Michelle smiled brightly. Even though she wasn't so unhappy to lose her old ribbons, she was happy to get new ones.

"As soon as you are better, papa will put them on you"

"_Merci papa"_

She already did feel a lot better. No more pain to hide and it all have been dealt with. Almost, she had to speak to Matthew and tell him he is a good big brother. That was the first thing she would do whenever she was alright again.


End file.
